Investment firm Invesco committed $300m to Singapore-based on-demand ride hailing platform Grab, adding to a series H round that has reached a total of $4.8bn and that has featured multiple corporate commitments as well. Grab most recently raised $1.46bn from telecoms conglomerate SoftBank’s Vision Fund in March 2019.
It began raising this record-breaking series H funding round in June 2018, when it closed a $1bn commitment from carmaker Toyota. Shopping centre owner Central Group, motor vehicle provider Yamaha, software producer Microsoft also contributed subsequently, as did Travel and accommodation booking platform Booking Holdings (providing $200m) and automotive manufacturers Hyundai and Kia Motors (both with a total of $250m). Insurance provider Ping An’s corporate venturing arm, Ping An Capital also invested along with Mirae Asset – Naver Asia Growth Fund, a joint venture of internet company Naver and investment bank Mirae Asset Daewoo. In March this year, Grab also added $1.46bn from telecoms conglomerate SoftBank’s Vision Fund. In April, Grab´s chief executive Anthony Tan said the company was seeking to raise a total to $6.5bn by the end of 2019. Grab’s earlier corporate investors also included travel agency Qunar and its China-based ride hailing peer Didi Chuxing.
Founded in 2012 as GrabTaxi, Grab runs ride hailing services across eight countries in Southeast Asia – Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar and the Philippines. It had started out with a taxi booking platform but has since grown to offer a full range of ride hailing services, including a chauffeured service and carpooling. Grab also offers a food delivery service and a mobile payment platform. The new funding is expected to enable Grab to consolidate its position in the financial and mobility services sectors.
This latest round increased Grab’s total funding to over $7.5bn to date, of which more than $7bn has been raised in corporate-backed rounds, as the GCV Analytics chart here suggests. Even though we have seen its most famous US-based peers, Uber and Lyft, go public recently, it appears that Grab is still in expansion phase and has no dearth of investors willing to pour billions into its late rounds.
